The Dining Experience
by Lena and Liz
Summary: First days are never easy. One shot companion to High Heels and Dirty Deals. Maria, Elaine, and King, who's having way too much fun.


**Disclaimer: **We don't own Sons of Anarchy or anything related to it. Any characters you don't recognize are our own creations, and any resemblance to people living or dead is purely coincidental. We make no profit from this.

**Authors' Note: **Here's another one for you, we hope you like it. One shots with Happy and the baby are coming up next, we'll hopefully post those soon.

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><p><em><strong>July 12, 2000<strong>_

"Carlos, I'm leaving!"

"Humgph!"

"What?"

Coming out of the bathroom and leaning on the doorframe with a toothbrush in his mouth, a shirtless Juice looked at Maria. She quirked one of her eyebrows, motioning for him to go on. He grinned and took the brush out of his mouth.

"I said 'have a nice first day.'"

"Thanks." She smiled brightly up at him. "You're coming by later, right?"

It was her first day at work, and she was a ball of nerves. She'd managed to land a waitressing job in a small family diner, but getting hired wasn't the hard part. The hard part was surviving her trial period and keeping the job.

During the time Maria and Juice had spent on the road she had done all sorts of odd jobs: she'd been a cashier, a maid, a babysitter, and she'd even walked dogs, but she had never been a waitress. She thought she'd have to give half her paycheck to pay for broken plates and glasses, but times were rough, and money was tight. They needed all the extra cash they could get with her starting college soon, and that was the only job she could find on such short notice.

"Of course!" Grinning, Juice winked at her. "I wouldn't miss it for the world!"

"Shut up."

She glowered at him and made her way out the door to the sound of his laughter. He knew she wasn't the best when it came to balance, and the distress that thought caused her amused him greatly. He poked fun at her and her new career choice every chance he got, and even though she got mad at him, Maria knew at the end of the day he'd be there for her.

Making the short walk to her new workplace, the latina arrived with a few minutes to spare. Knowing her waitressing skills weren't up to par, she couldn't really afford being late.

Entering the diner, she was greeted by Elaine, the cook. The older woman had worked there for years, and even though she wasn't the owner, she ran the place and loved it like it was her own. Elaine had been responsible for hiring her, and even though Maria thought the cook liked her, there was no doubt in her mind that the sweet lady would fire her if she couldn't do her job.

Setting up for the day was fairly easy – pull down a few chairs, clean some tables, start the coffee machine. Another waitress was working the morning shift with Maria, the one whose place she would take if everything went well the first week. The girl was leaving soon, and even though she was friendly, she wasn't overly ecstatic to get to know her replacement. Maria wasn't going to get too invested in the relationship either; after the end of the week she would never see "Christy with a y, not an ie" again. As hypocritical as it was, the Latina was going to get what she could without getting too personal, she didn't need more fleeting relationships in her life.

The morning went by quickly without incident. Maria served some coffee, made some small talk, and a few people had breakfast. The disasters started happening one after the other when lunch rolled around.

The teen's nerves were just easing up, and her confidence was building, when everything started happening at once; one bad thing after the other, just like dominoes falling. She wasn't prepared for the lunch-hour rush, so when all of the tables in the small diner were occupied, she found herself completely out of her depth.

At first, things weren't so bad. She was late getting the order of a sweet old couple, but they were more than understanding, and since they weren't in a hurry, they were content to wait a few minutes. That, and a woman's coffee was a bit cold when it arrived, but she seemed happy she wouldn't have to wait for it to cool, so that crisis was also averted.

The bigger problems started when Karen, a snotty blonde who worked in the beauty-salon around the corner, set foot in the diner to have lunch with her man of the week. Maria wasn't sure how "a cobb salad with no tomatoes, no onions, no chicken, egg, or bacon, and hold the dressing" even classified as lunch in the first place. Her companion obviously thought the same as he rolled his eyes at the order. He was handsome, she couldn't deny that, but he definitely wasn't her type. A little too clean-cut and too much of a pretty boy for her, although the motorcycle he came on and the whole biker vibe definitely did something for her. She just couldn't decide if it made her breathing difficult because she was attracted to him, or because he scared the crap out of her.

"A burger and fries for me, sweetheart. And a beer." He glanced toward his blonde companion, who was still looking at the menu. "God knows I need it."

The words were said under his breath, but being near his end of the table, Maria still heard them. She smiled at him, scribbling the order on her pad. "I'll be right back with your order." She had just turned around, when a sickly sweet voice came from behind her.

"Excuse me." Karen waiter for her to turn and gave her a fake smile. "Maria, is it?" Not waiting for an answer, she plunged right in. "Won't you take _my_ drink order or are you too busy coming onto_ my boyfriend_?"

A deer-caught-in-headlights look on her face, the Latina's eyes quickly darted to the man in question. Eyebrows raised high on his forehead, he crossed his arms over his chest and sat back in his chair. Was he amused?

"I'm sorry…" She couldn't even finish stuttering out her apology, the bratty blonde cut her off as soon as she had started speaking.

"Yes, of course you are." She threw her a patronizing look. "I'll have a coke." Giving her a once-over, Karen smirked. "A diet coke."

"Of course, I'll bring that right away."

Taking the jab in stride, Maria hurriedly went to the cooler, getting a diet coke and a beer, and made her way to the counter to find a bottle opener and give Elaine the orders. Her good day had just made a turn for the worst, and the chance of it ending on a good note was deteriorating fast. She glanced at Cruella de Vil's table and cringed, taking a deep breath, before starting the walk of death.

"Here are your drinks. Your food will be ready shortly."

Being completely ignored by the blonde, she took the biker's nod as an okay and awkwardly made her way to the counter, picking up empty plates and bottles as she went. Christy was sitting on a stool folding napkins, and she gave some of them to Maria, barely sparing the brunette a glance.

"You're not folding them right."

Looking to her left, the young girl was met with a scowling waitress. "Excuse me?"

"You're not folding them right! Look!" Gesturing furiously at her own napkins, Maria was sure the blonde was going to have a conniption.

"Look, I didn't know there was a fu-"

"Maria, order up!"

Getting up and going to the kitchen, she took the "salad" and burger, dreading her next meeting with Karen.

"It's gonna get better, dear." Elaine gave her a reassuring smile and sent her on her way.

"Sure it will," Maria grumbled to herself as she walked toward the table, "as soon as I murder that blonde stuck-up bitch." She put a smile on her face and placed the salad in front of the hairdresser. "Here you are."

"Thanks, doll," the biker said with a grin.

Still smiling, she went to another table nearby so she could take an old lady's order.

"So, King, I was thinking…" Karen ignored their server and caught the biker's hand in hers. "Baby, I haven't been to the Golden Coast in sooo long, and I really miss my mom. You know my mom, she lives there with…" Trailing off, the bottle-blonde looked down at her salad, horrified. "_Excuusee me_, Maria."

Cringing, the new girl looked at Christy for help. The older waitress smirked. "Well, go and see what she wants, I'll bring Mrs. Smith's coffee." Smiling devilishly, she went to get the drink. "And Maria, remember... the customer's always right!"

"Right." Plastering her fake smile on, the girl went back to her most demanding customer. "Can I help you with something?"

"Yes, you sure can. This has tomatoes." Pointing at her salad, Karen looked like she was going to throw up. "I said no tomatoes! I want a new salad."

Her boyfriend, King, rolled his eyes. "C'mon, don't be ridiculous." He sighed at her incredulous look. "It's one fuckin' tomato. Just pick it off or something."

"_King!"_ The blonde's screech was piercing. "I said I didn't want any!" She picked the plate up and shoved it in Maria's hands. "Here, take it!"

Maria took the salad, but the force with which Karen shoved it made her take a few steps back, bumping into Christy. The pot of coffee the older woman was carrying fell to the floor, splashing everyone's shoes in the process, including Karen's. The mad blonde shrieked and jumped up, the table rocking from the movement. She hit Maria, causing the salad to fly out of her hands and right at the annoyed customer, ending up all over her white dress.

For a few moments everyone was still, and then all hell broke loose. Karen started crying, and when she saw King was laughing at her, she stormed out of the diner like a bat out of hell. Maria was near tears herself, with Christy yelling at her, and Elaine looking disappointingly from the other end of the room. The only amused one was the biker, whose booming laugh echoed off the walls.

"Jesus!" He quickly drank his beer and took a twenty dollar bill out of his pocket. Thumping the shocked Maria on her back, he put the money in her hand before leaving. "Here, sweetheart, and keep the change. You earned it."

Elaine went to get a mop while Maria cleaned up Karen's table. Christy was in the bathroom, trying to get the coffee out of her apron, and the Latina was glad she wasn't yelling anymore. The cook put a gentle hand on her shoulder, smiling softly. "Look honey, your shift's almost over. Why don't you go home?"

"I-"

"It's okay, we'll clean up here. You need the break. It was an awful first day. Hopefully tomorrow will be better."

"I'm not fired?" Maria looked at her hopefully.

"Oh no, dear, you're not. Everyone has a bad day."

"Yeah… Thanks, Elaine."

"It's okay." Elaine smiled. "Just go and relax. Tomorrow's gonna be better."

With one last smile, Maria went to get her stuff, and then made her way out of the diner. She sat down on the sidewalk and looked at her watch. There were fifteen minutes left until the end of her shift, so Juice should be coming to pick her up soon. They'd talked on the phone during her short lunch break, and he'd promised to pick her up. Burying her head in her hands, she sighed, wondering how a good day had become such a shitty one. She wasn't that bad of a waitress, was she?

"Yo, Mia!" Juice parked the tuck next to her and got out, a goofy grin on his face. "What's up, super waitress?"

Maria looked up, relieved to see him. She could always count on Juice to make her smile. "Hey."

"C'mon, get up." He took her hands and picked her up, twirling her around. "Couldn't have been that bad, so stop frowning."

She snorted. "You weren't there, Carlos. It was terrible!"

"You fired?"

They made their way to the truck and she unlocked it. "Nah."

His goofy grin was back, making her smile despite everything. "See, you have another day to botch everything up and get fired."

"Oh, shut up."


End file.
